In
Closed
UN Meeting, JPM Chase Closing Mission Accounts Is Not Solved
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 4 -- JPMorgan Chase's move
to close the accounts of
many countries' missions to the UN was the hot topic in the closed
door session of the UN's Host Country Committee meeting on February
3.
But
when the
meeting ended the Committee's chairman Minas Hadjimichael, the
Permanent Representative of Cyprus, left through a side door facing
the East River and proceeded through unplowed snow out to First
Avenue.
Inner
City Press,
which has covered the bank issues and tries to cover the Host Country
Committee despite Hadjimichael declaring it closed, ran and caught up
with him on First Avenue.
“Was there a
solution of banks?” Inner City Press asked.
Hadjimichael
said,
“It was not an item on the agenda of the meeting. It came up under
Any Other Business.... America replied, saying they would try.”
Last
month,
Patrick Kennedy from the US State Department came to New York to tell
ambassadors he was working on it. Inner City Press asked Hadjimichael
for an update. He said he thanked the US for trying, but
“ I am worried there is no solution, the deadline is approaching.”
At UN Jan 13, Patrick Kennedy, spokesman
Kornblau & Joseph Melrose: where's Chase?
Observing
through
the glass of the closed ECOSOC chamber on Thursday, Inner City Press
saw Iran
spoke, and heard that Uganda among others also spoke out. After the
last meeting with Kennedy, Egypt's ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, spoke
out against Chase's cut off. Now he has other worries.
But
what about the
Secretariat, which after Inner City Press' last article
put this out:
From:
UN
Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011
at 8:05 AM
Subject: Your questions on Chase Bank
To: Inner City
Press
We
can
say the following in reply to your questions at the noon
briefing:
Some
ambassadors
emerging from the US briefing about their accounts being
shuttered think the UN should withdraw all its accounts with Chase.
Has this been broached with the administration? Being weighed at all?
We
understand
that this was raised by one Member State delegate in the
briefing with Ambassador Kennedy. The UN Secretariat has not been
approached in this matter.
Will
Chase
open an office in the UN building after the CMP?
Under
the
CMP, the new UN building design includes space provision for
banks. No agreements have been entered into with any banks for this
space.
Watch this site.
* * *
As
JPM
Chase
Cuts
Off UN Missions, US Says Bailed Out Banks
Are Free
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
13,
updated -- When JPMorgan Chase wrote to countries'
Missions to the UN and told them accounts would be closed in March
2011, several countries complained, to the UN and to the “host
country,” the United States.
Thursday
US
Under
Secretary
of State Patrick Kennedy came to the UN in New York to
speak to countries' Ambassadors about Chase's move. Afterwards, Inner
City Press asked Kennedy if he -- or Hillary Clinton or Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, both of whom Kennedy said were involved
-- had spoke with JPMorgan Chase.
"We
have had discussions with the major banks," Kennedy answered, later
confirming that yes, this
included Chase. But what was the response of Chase, whose CEO Jaime
Dimon is often rumored to be a line for an appointment by the Obama
administration?
Kennedy
told
the
press
that “we cannot tell a bank what to do.” Inner City Press
immediately asked, What about the banks which took bailouts and still
owe TARP money to the US and its taxpayers? "Could the government use
its leverage?"
Kennedy said
he was not
“technically competent to get into that level of detail," and told
Inner
City Press to ask the Treasury Department official who had also come
to the UN. Video on Inner City Press YouTube channel here.
While
the
US
Mission
later said this Treasury Deparment official was Mark Poncy of
the Office of Strategic Policy, Poncy never came to speak to the
Press.
Inner
City
Press
asked
Kennedy if he thought the UN should go forward and re-rent
space inside the UN under its Capital Master Plan to JPMorgan Chase,
when this bank was turning its back on Missions of the countries
which make up the UN.
“Ask the UN,”
said Kennedy, who has responsibility at the State Department for
Management, including at the UN. At the US Mission to the UN in New
York, the Management position has remained with only an interim
person, the genial but part time Professor Joseph Melrose.
At
the UN's noon
briefing, Inner City Press did ask Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin
Nesirky if the UN would give space to JPMorgan Chase in the
Secretariat building when it re-opens.
“Ask Chase,”
Nesirky said. But Chase is already in talks with the UN as to which
space to get in the repaired building -- not, apparently, the fourth
floor space it previously had, but some other location.
Nesirky
now
said
that
he would not comment on negotiations. But is Chase's closing of
UN Mission's accounts, Inner City Press asked, even part of the
negotiations? Nesirky seemed to say he would look into this.
JPMorgan
Chase
is
not
only interested in re-entering the Secretariat building when it
re-opens: Chase also has a branch on the first floor of the DC-1
building which houses the UN Development Program. Many countries'
Missions to the UN opened accounts at Chase because they were thus
inside the UN. Will the UN allow this to continue?
After
the
meeting
with
Kennedy, Inner City Press asked Iran's Permanent Representative
as he came out if he thought Chase should continue to remain in UN
buildings. No, the Ambassador said, UN space should go to banks
which will deal with UN Missions.
He spoke of
the UN Federal Credit
Union -- currently embroiled in a dispute about the account of the UN
Staff Union -- and was asked if the UN should withdraw its own funds
from a bank which in effect redlines Missions, like Chase.
Egypt's
Permanent
Representative
told
the Press about “transfer fees” while
Turkey's Deputy Permanent Representative shrugged that “there are
Turkish banks in New York.”
Russian
Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin, asked in front of the Security
Council about JPMorgan Chase's move, laughed and said "the ruble is a
very strong currency," when you have the ruble you don't need anything
else. But the others? Watch this site.
Update
of
January
14, 2011: the following arrived:
From:
UN
Spokesperson
- Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011
at 8:05 AM
Subject: Your questions on Chase Bank
To: Inner City
Press
We
can
say
the following in reply to your questions at the noon
briefing:
Some
ambassadors
emerging
from the US briefing about their accounts being
shuttered think the UN should withdraw all its accounts with Chase.
Has this been broached with the administration? Being weighed at all?
We
understand
that
this was raised by one Member State delegate in the
briefing with Ambassador Kennedy. The UN Secretariat has not been
approached in this matter.
Will
Chase
open
an office in the UN building after the CMP?
Under
the
CMP,
the new UN building design includes space provision for
banks. No agreements have been entered into with any banks for this
space.
, 
